Sanitation is a human right, yet lack of access to adequate sanitary services has claimed the lives of over 1.1 million children under the age of five since the year 2000 in Nigeria. ETTA MICHAEL BISONG writes on this crisis, highlighting the need for Nigerians to Vote4WASH in the forthcoming general elections to demand for this fundamental right
Nigeria like other developing nations in Africa, Asia and the Pacific no doubt continue to face the challenges of providing its citizens with clear water, hygiene and sanitation. Despite that the dangers of poor sanitation and dirty water have been known for around 150 years, 36 prominent international health and development experts including WaterAid observed that over 121 million people (72% of the population) still lack access to these basic sanitary needs in Nigeria.
The signatories, who represent over 620, 000 health professionals globally, highlighted this observation in an open letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon where they revealed that seven in ten children in Nigeria do not have access to these services, which contributes to three of the major killers of children: under nutrition, pneumonia and diarrhoea. It also emphasised that the ‘’sanitation crisis touches every moment of every child’s life, from birth to adulthood, if they are lucky enough to make it that far.”
Many children today have no choice but to live and play in areas contaminated by human waste, due to improper sanitary facilities. The letter which coincided with a new briefing released by WaterAid: ‘’Child of Mine,’’ states that sanitation remains one of the most neglected issues in developing countries and international development aid.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 88% of cases of diarrhoea are caused by lack of access to basic sanitation, unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene provision. Globally, over 12 million children are estimated to have died from 2000 to 2013 simply because of diarrhoeal diseases. Of these deaths, nearly 1, 400 of them occur daily. Although more than 1.8 billion people globally have gained access to sanitation since 1990, over 2.5 billion, more than one-third of the world’s population are still living without this access.
This problem sadly reinforces the current crisis facing West Africa counties where Ebola has taken the lives of so many. This is further exacerbated by the cholera outbreak that has continued to plague neighbouring countries like Niger, Ghana and Sierra Leone as well as pocket outbreaks of diseases in Nigeria.
Where there is no sanitation, children are repeatedly exposed to harm. Poor sanitation and hygiene conditions as the time of birth put mother and baby at risk of life-threatening infection. Children being weaned from breastfeeding are exposed to pathogens through contaminated food and water – exposure that increases the child grows and is able to crawl and walk. Diarrhoea, even when it does not result in death, can have long-term impacts.
Approximately a quarter of stunting (short height for age) can be attributed or more diarrhoea episodes before two years of age. Exposure to pathogens and infection, due to lack of sanitation, within the first 1, 000 days of life, has a detrimental effect on early childhood development – the physical, cognitive, social and emotional development of children from prenatal to eight years of age – which is crucial for good health in later life. Stunt growth can also lead to difficulties in childbirth and increased susceptibility to diseases.
Open defecation explains 54% of international variation in child height; in contrast, GDP only explains 29%. This quickly reinforces the need to focus on sanitation as key driver of child development.
“This lack of access to basic sanitation harms the health of children and often leaves a life legacy of disease and poverty,’’ said Dr. Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria Country Representative. ‘’Those children need our government to collectively step up and commit that by 2030 no home, hospital or school will be without a toilet and clean water.
“Death from diarrhoeal diseases – they can be stopped this century. We cannot afford to have our people to die from illness which can be stooped. Most of the deaths in Sub-Saharan African are from preventable causes – that’s why we have diarrhoeal diseases all over the place. We don’t need rocket science to prevent them,” said Dr. Eumu Silver, Amuria, district, Uganda, East Africa.
Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, Mrs. Lurencia Mallam in her speech to mark the 2014 World Toilet Day in Abuja, observed that her Ministry with support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other development partners as part of efforts to tackle this environmental epidemic has undertaken several activities which include the development of an all-embracing National Environmental Sanitation Policy (NESP) including policy guidelines on safe excreta disposal in 2005 and the Construction of toilet in public places.
It is nine years since the NESP was lunched and there is no doubt that some progress have been made.
However, in spite of the gains made from the implementation of the NESP at the various level of governance so far, poor environmental sanitation is still a major problem in urban centres and communities across Nigeria. The minister decried that access to sanitary facilities remains a mirage to a vast majority of the entire citizenry. She said any people still use the bush as their regular means for excreta disposal, and many institutions still do not have sanitary facilities and whereby it exits, it is either not functioning or misused.
According to the National Demographic and Health Survey, access to improved sanitation is still very poor at 36% for majority of the population. The nation’s environment boss noted that the absence of adequate sanitary facilities in schools constitute a great threat to school enrolment, particularly for the female children.
“The federal government of Nigeria under current dispensation is committed to addressing this problem. This commitment is demonstrated by the great efforts put in place to sensitise major towns and cities in the country,’’ Mrs. Mallam said. ‘’I therefore challenge all stakeholders, on environment both at the National and State levels not only to set up their committee as appropriate, but also to ensure that they function effectively in line with the dictates of the National Environmental Sanitation Policy.”